British actress Kate Winslet poses with her neck badge after being made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to drama by Britain's Queen Elizabeth II at an investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace in central London on November 21, 2012.Photo: Getty Images

LONDON — Kate Winslet’s new husband won an injunction Tuesday in a British court to stop a tabloid newspaper publishing photos of him at a costume party.

The High Court ruled in favour of Ned Rocknroll, issuing an order preventing The Sun from running the images pending the outcome of his invasion of privacy claim. Lawyers for The Sun say the photos show Rocknroll partly naked.

The nephew of Virgin media tycoon Richard Branson says there is no public interest in running the 2010 photos. His lawyers argue Winslet’s children could be bullied as a result of publication.

Winslet and Rocknroll issued a statement later saying the photos, taken by a friend at a private 21st birthday party, were innocent but embarrassing and that there was no reason to publish them.

“We recognize that in the Internet age privacy is harder and harder to maintain, but we will continue to do what we can, particularly to protect Kate’s children from the results of media intrusion,” the couple said in a statement. “We refuse to accept that her career means our family cannot live a relatively normal life.”

Rocknroll, 34, who legally changed his name from Abel Smith, worked for Branson’s Virgin Galactic space company before becoming a sheep farmer.

He says he had been a “relative nobody” prior to his marriage to Winslet last month.